Thursday, June 27, 2013

Here at House of James, we are fortunate enough to be able
to host many different events. We often have music in our coffeehouse (in fact
Jacob Moon is going to be here again on Friday, June 28), we have authors like
Bryan Davis come and visit us (encouraging our youth to read and pursue writing
dreams), we have new authors like Trudy Beyak come in for book launches (her
book is quite amazing, you should read it and find out for yourself), we have
occasional workshops and we have breakfast meetings (with hot yummy breakfasts baked fresh in our coffeehouse)…we are blessed to be able to serve in a variety of areas and we love it!

Last week we had Rick Goossen visit and talk about his new
book, Entrepreneurial Leadership, which he co-authored with R. Paul Stevens. It
was quite a morning as many of our community business men and women arrived early
for a freshly made breakfast served with plenty of coffee. Upon walking into
the store, there was a buzz around the room as people talked, connected and
shared…it made me smile as I marveled at the group that had come together.

'I found this to be a really important book that helped me
understand my role as a Christian entrepreneur. Full of thoughtful and well
researched content that validated how I often feel as a business leader. Paul
Stevensand Rick Goossen have taken
ideas from Peter Drucker, John Maxwell, the Bible and many entrepreneurial
interviews to bring us clarity and and a strong foundation in understanding
these leadership roles. They source Stephen Spinelli and Jeffry Timmons who say
there are six dominant themes that have emerged from what successful entrepreneurs
do and how they perform: Commitment and determination; leadership; opportunity
obsession, tolerance of risk, tolerance of ambiguity and uncertainty;
creativity, self-reliance and adaptability; and motivation to excel.

I loved the chapter on risk and reward which covers The Risk
Taking God, The Trinity and Entrepreneurship, and Thoughtful and Careful Risk
Taking- I think this would be an excellent book to read with others and discuss
it together. Not a quick read on how to be a better leader but a thoughtful,
content rich discourse on who we really are and how we can live out our
calling. I commend the authors for giving us this great work and Inter Varsity
Press for making it available.'